Red Band Romance a Leo and Emma story
by MelissaOnly
Summary: Told in alternating views, Leo and Emma share their stories, stuck to the confines of Ocean Park Hospital. With their futures unknown and anything being a possibility these two lovers will find love once more. [Red Band Society, a Leo and Emma story]
1. Chapter 1

**Authors Note**- Hello. So…there are a few things I would like to state before we all jump into this.

I would just like to start by saying I, obviously, do not own Red Band Society. Also, I have not written a fan-fiction since I was about 14 and Kids Next Door was still on (hello, number 3 and number 4?) so please excuse me if this is a bit rough at first.

So, without further adieu…

**Red Band Romance**

**Chapter One**

**Emma**

All I know is that it hurts. But, that hurt must mean I am stronger, it must mean that I am becoming the me I should have always been. They like to tell me that all these pains make me weak, but they are wrong. These hunger pains, they mean I am getting thinner. The holes in my heart, they mean I am strong enough not to need anyone. I am not sick. I am strong. They know nothing.

That is not true. I am weak. I hear wheels coming down the hall towards my room and quickly look up. Is it someone coming to see me? Maybe Brittany is coming to bring me my dinner. Or maybe Kara is coming to offer me some sort of pill. Those feelings mean I am weak. Or, even weaker, I hope it will be one of the boys.

The boys. Jordi and Leo. I know that Jordi like me. And I know that Leo still his leftover feelings for me. I can feel it in the way they look at me. And I would want nothing more to give myself up and be taken away into the throws of love. Let someone else help absorb my pain, and in turn absorb theirs. Let someone else in. Feel happiness with someone else. Like I felt with Leo. Like I could feel with Jordi. But I cannot do that. I will not give myself up so easily again. Time after time. I will be in control this time.

There is a knock on the door. I glance up from the book I am reading. If you could call it reading, I have been stuck on the same page for an hour. Leo is sitting in his wheelchair, waiting to gain entrance to my room. I do not know if I am happy his eyes are the ones mine meet, or disappointed. "Hey." He says, his usual relaxed tone carrying his words.

"What do you want, Leo?" I do not wish to sound so mean, but I am afraid I will lose control again. I do not want to let him affect me. I won't. "I am trying to read."

His face remains neutral. "We are having a party on the roof," he pauses to judge my expression "after we all eat dinner." Again he pauses, this time he wheels himself completely into my room. "So when you finish eating you should come join us. Dash was able to score some green."

I study his face. His eyes are big and inviting, the offer was not meant to bother me. Still, I feel as if he was on the offensive. I take a deep breath and manage a kind response. "When I finish eating my dinner I will try to meet you guys up there." I try not to let me voice falter. I will not be eating my dinner. "And you know I do not take any drugs. Smoking weed is included in that."

He lets out a brief laugh. "Yeah. I know." Leo looks down at the carpet and sighs, then meets my eyes again. "I hear it's pizza for dinner. I can't wait." His smile has faded and a few beats of silence follow. I know what he is thinking, he knows I won't eat it. This hurts him for some reason. Still, his voice remains neutral, "I'll see you later."

I watch silently as he backs out of my room. His eyes don't leave mine. "Sounds good." I manage to say before he turns away and pushes himself down the hall, I clear my throat, "Later, Leo." He nods and I watch him roll down the hall. "But I won't eat the dinner".

**Leo**

I am just finishing up an article I found online about a Climate March in New York City when Dash walks in. I don't hear him step into the room because I am lost in my thoughts. So many things are spinning around in my brain. If I wasn't stuck in this hospital I could join protests too. If I wasn't missing a leg I could march through a city too. If I wasn't just another kid with cancer I could change the world too.

I don't notice Dash until he clears his throat loudly. My head bolts up, startled out of its spiraling thoughts. Before I get a chance to yell anything at him he takes something out from behind his back. "Someone finally paid up." He is holding out a large zip-lock bag half full of little green nuggets. "I bet the crazy kid three doors down from me that I could get Nurse Britany to give me a sponge bath." He winks.

"How did you manage that?" I'm more impressed by the sponge bath then the weed. Weed isn't that hard to come by around here, seeing that medical is legal in California. "Come to think of it, I don't want to know". The idea of my best friend naked and getting rubbed down by the only hot nurse in the building is far from arousing.

Dash wiggles his eyebrows and hides the bag under his shirt. "As if you could pull it off. We can't all be as sexy as me." He flexes his poor excuse of an arm muscle and winks. "Anyway, I've already told Kara and Jordi to meet me on the roof after dinner. You've gotta tell Emma."

I try to fight back the smile. Any excuse I get to talk to Emma is a little piece of happy for me. Dash knows I'm still into her, but he doesn't mention it. He just does the brotherly duty of handing me any reason to talk to her. "After dinner tonight?"

He nods, winks one more time, and slowly backs out of the room to leave me with my thoughts. To think about Emma. My sweet Emma. I lay back in my bed and smile to myself as I think about her.

By the time I make it up to the roof everyone but Emma is there. Kara is stretched out across the makeshift bench, leaving no room for anyone else to sit. She is wearing her leather jacket and is holding a cigarette between her thin fingers. If she wasn't such a stuck up bitch, and if I wasn't still hopelessly in love with Emma, I might be into her. Dash is sitting on the banister, his attention on the joint he is carefully rolling. Jordi is trying to start a conversation with Kara, who is paying him no attention.

My eyes fall on Jordi. I know he likes Emma. I know she likes him, too. But I think she might still like me, too. Or at least I hope she does. She is torn. It hurts me so badly to know that she may choose Jordi over me. If she has the heart to choose. We started off as really good friends, Jordi and I. It's not like I hate the kid; I just don't want him to get the leg and the girl. My girl. But I won't admit that I am jealous. I am not jealous.

I roll over to Dash and turn to my other two friends, although I am not sure either qualify as friends. "Hey guys." I greet as enthusiastically as I can. And let's be honest, it's not so enthusiastic.

Jordi mumbled a 'hi'. He knows I'm grudging against him. He knows I still love Emma. He knows I know he's exploring my territory. He knows I am not happy with him. Kara looks up at me and blows a puff of smoke. "It's about time you showed up. I'm ready to get high, already." Ungrateful bitch.

It looks like Emma is nowhere in sight. I am not surprised, but I am also hopelessly disappointed. My mood turns sour. "Come on, Dash. Are you done yet?" I ask him impatiently. I just want to get high. I know it doesn't help anything in the long run; but forgetting my cancer and forgetting Emma is worth the negatives associated with smoking. Besides, I used to love smoking even before I got cancer.

"Hold up, man." Dash grunts. He is almost done. He licks the edge of the paper and seals up his perfectly shaped joint. "You need to relax." He lights up, the smell of skunk mixed with something sweet fills the air. Dash has bad lungs, so two hits and he can't smoke anymore. He laughs and passes it over to me. "_Reee-lax_."

My head gets fuzzy when I smoke. I wasn't going to take a hit if Emma was here, she always hated when I smoked. But she didn't bother to show up so I gratefully inhaled as much smoke as I could. I want to greet that fuzzy numb feeling with open arms. "How 'bout you, Jordi?" I take one last hit and exhale with a laugh. Passing him the joint I ask, "You wanna' relax?"

As Jordi is taking the joint from my hand the door that leads to the roof swings open. The four of us freeze and look at the door in a panic. We are all expecting Nurse Jackson to be standing there. After the figure steps into the small ring of light everyone but me relaxes when they see who is at the top of the stairs. It's Emma.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

**Emma**

For some reason walking onto the roof to see Jordi and Leo sharing a joint hit me like punch in the face. On top of my terrible dinner experience I was just about ready to jump off of the roof and never look back.

At dinner Nurse Jackson served me last, so she could sit in my room and watch me eat. It took everything I had in me to stomach the two little bites of pizza I managed to choke down. I could already feel that grease spreading throughout my body. Luckily, there was an emergency on another floor and she had to run out of the room. I flushed half of the pizza down the toilet and made my escape to the roof. If I flushed the whole thing they would have known I didn't eat it, half a pizza seems believable.

Leo wouldn't look me in the eyes as I walked past them to sit next to Kara. Jordi was taking a long drag off the joint and nodded a hello at me. Dash was carefully perched on the balcony of the roof, looking out at the lights down below.

"Hey Emma," Jordi coughed out with a laugh. "You want a hit?" He extended his arm in my direction, passing the half smoked joint my way.

For a moment no one spoke. That few seconds seemed to last a lifetime. I know he didn't mean to offend me by asking, but for some reason I felt anger build up. Of course Jordi smoked week. Just like Leo. Just like every other jerky boy. Why did I expect any difference? I snuck a quick glance at Leo who was shaking his head. He looked rather stoned, but at least had enough common sense not to offer me any.

Kara broke the silence. "She's perfect, remember?" I never thought I'd be happy to hear her snarl. "Emma doesn't do drugs. She's…" Kara slid her feet off the bench and took the joint from Jordi, "_healthy."_

I stared at her while she inhaled deeply. "Well, you know what they say. Drugs make the heart grow stronger."

"Sorry, Emma." Jordi butted in before Kara could respond. "If I knew you didn't smoke I wouldn't have passed it your way. My mistake." He laid a hand on my knee and smiled a genuine smile. For some reason I still felt anger.

Leo cleared his throat and looked at me. "You know, Emma, if I knew you were coming up I would have passed on it." He coughed one more time. "The weed I mean. I know it makes you uncomfortable."

Kara had already passed the joint back to Dash, who took one last puff and flicked it over the edge. "Dash, you have bad lungs. You shouldn't smoke." I ignored Leo's comment and slowly pulled my knee away from Jordi. "I worry about you, you know."

"Thank Em. But I'm cool." He shot me a classic grin and got off the banister to stretch. "You know I got cha back, too."

Leo elbowed Dash playfully and looked into my eyes. "We all care about each other." He said simply. "That's what the Red Band Society is all about." His eyes glanced down at the red band Jordi given me. I know it bothered him that I had lost his, but he tried not to let it show. "Red Bands stick together."

After some small talk on the roof we decided it was time to go back inside. If we stay out there for too long someone would notice we were missing and we could get into trouble. Later that night I was laying in my bed staring at the door to the bathroom.

I could feel the pieces of pizza in my stomach. I had gone so long without eating a bite of food, and it was ruined today. Normally when I need to eat I will just have some of the side salad or a spoonful of Jell-O. But Nurse Jackson knows that. When she is doing the dinner shift for my wing she makes sure I eat some of the main meal. Once a week she sits and watches me eat a few bites of whatever is on my plate. I dread every moment.

I try to think about anything other than food. Other than the pizza that is sitting like a brick in my stomach. I think about Jordi placing his hand on my Knee. His hand felt so warm through my thin tights. Leo's face pops into my head next. His thick eyebrows furrowed and a distant look in his eye. It hurts him to know that I do not love him. It hurts him to know that he broke my heart and he is never going to get me back. It hurts him to know that his friend, Jordi, stands a better chance than he does.

I close my eyes and breathe deeply. Memories of Leo pour into my head. The day we met, our first 'date', our first kiss. I sigh. I could have those moments with anyone else. Inside or outside this hospital. I need to let it go. I need to let him go.

* * *

><p><strong>Leo<strong>

I cannot sleep. My mind is still fuzzy from the weed and I can hear Jordi snoring off-beat. Jordi. He doesn't understand how badly I still want Emma. He has no idea that he is stepping on my toes. I shouldn't be mad at him, I shouldn't have to keep reminding myself of that.

His hand on her knee flashes into my mind. She didn't move away at first. She must not have minded. But she was disappointed that he smoked, so she did pull away. I cannot yet tell whether or not Jordi stands a chance. I cannot yet tell whether or not I still stand a second chance, if I ever did. I don't even know how I got her the first time. And I screwed it up.

I roll over and stare out the window. The world beyond the hospital walls. I would never have met Emma out there. If I never had cancer, if I still had my stupid leg, I wouldn't be feeling this way. I close my eyes again and try to go back to the last time I felt good. The last time I could smile honestly.

It was before my surgery, I still had my leg. But it was after the chemo, I didn't have my hair. Emma and I were sitting in my room together on my bed. She was telling me some story about her parents and her going on a trip. I remember thinking how weird it was that her family did things together. And I remember thinking how beautiful she looked, even when she was sad. I placed a hand on her cheek and smiled at her. "I love you Emma." It was the first time I had said those three words to her.

I remember the look on her face. She almost seemed shocked. "I….I love you too, Leo." That was the last time she ever said those words to me.

* * *

><p><strong>Authors Note: <strong>I know this chapter is exactly action packed, but I needed to put something up while I work on chapter three. Which is most definitely action packed. I am just putting the final touches on right now; so maybe if you are nice to me I'll post it today or tomorrow ;)


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

**Emma**

I can't sleep. The red numbers on my clock keep ticking past; midnight, one, two, three, four… I can feel that pizza lick a brick in my stomach. 50 calories of grease in my stomach. I get out of bed and turn my night table light on. The lights in the hospital are off, except the night lights that cast a dull light in the hallway. Everyone is sleeping, except the night nurses who are filling out paper work and watching the screen for someone to call in an emergency. This is the perfect time to wake up in this place. No one can judge you. You are alone.

I stand naked in front of the mirror in my bathroom. There are still chunks of fat on me body. Just a few more pounds and I will be perfect. A few more pounds and I won't need to worry about silly boys in silly hospitals because I will be perfect. I've let myself go. I've lost control.

"No more boys." I tell the chubby cheeked girl in the mirror. "No more food." I grab a pair of exercise clothes I keep hidden under the sink in the bathroom. After I slip the tight fitting pants on I take one more look at myself. "And run…" I sigh in disgust, "fat ass."

I grab my sneakers and hold onto them tightly. If the nurses catch me out of my room it won't be a big deal, but if they know I am trying to go for a run they will probably up my therapy and force feed me more grease and cheese. I sneak down the hall and slip into a stairwell, perfect.

Sneakers on and stretches completed I begin running up and down the stairs. It had been a while since I had done this. In fact, the last time I ran like this was the day I got sent to the hospital. I feel myself go numb as the memory replays itself.

It was a normal day, about three months ago. Both of my parents were at work and would not be home for dinner. That would happen often, so it was easy to hide my eating disorder. If they began to get suspicious I would cook an elaborate meal, leave all the dished in the sink, and throw away a large portion of it so they thought I ate.

The night before my mother had sat me down. "Emma, sweetheart, you seem to be getting thinner and thinner. Your father and I are worried. You are eating, aren't you baby?"

I never lied to my mother. "Of course I am, mom". Except when it came to food.

I was making homemade lasagna, a lot of cheese and a lot of carbs, the night I was sent to the hospital. The lasagna was out of the oven and I had a big piece on my plate. Even though I was going to throw it out I would like to sit at the table and pretend I was eating. I sat at my large dining room table all by myself, just the light from the kitchen was on.

My stomach grumbled. I hadn't eaten in days. My stomach was begging me for a piece of the lasagna that I had just spent an hour making. I couldn't resist taking one bite. Just one bite. It was good. It was phenomenal. I felt the cheese slide down my throat and hit my empty stomach.

I sat silently in my dark dining room. I sat there for a long time, maybe even for an hour. Silently I rose and walked to the stairs that led to my bedroom. Without any words, or any lights, I began to run. Up and down the stairs. I blanked out. There was nothing. The next thing I knew I was in the hospital…

My sneakers pounded against the linoleum steps. My breath was burning my chest as it came out in rushes. My head was pounding. My legs burned. I had to keep going. I had to lose that weight. I had to gain back control.

**Leo**

The sound of an alarm beeping woke me up early in the morning. I hadn't realized I had fallen asleep to the image of Emma in my head. The kid in the room next to me, a new admission, was having another seizure. Unfortunately, things like that happened all the time in the hospital, so I just viewed it as an annoyance. I glanced over at Jordi, who was still somehow fast asleep.

Knowing I wouldn't be falling back asleep I got up and strapped my prosthetic leg on. I may as well practice walking with it if I ever want to be a normal kid again. I put on a fresh black t-shirt and a pair of pants and started walking slowly down the hall. Everyone was still fast asleep in their rooms, I was the only one awakened by the sound of the alarm going off.

With all the nurses busy I decided to attempt to walk up the stairs to go see if Dash was awake yet. If not maybe I'd go see if Emma was up, or sit on the roof for a minute before things calmed down. I opened the double doors to the staircase, but stopped when I heard footsteps.

Someone was running up the stairs at an uneven speed. I stepped into the stairwell away from the door, assuming it was a nurse that would need to get past me. As the door shut behind me I saw Emma run up. The girl never ceases to amaze me. How can someone so smart and beautiful be so concerned about her weight? Just the idea that she not only doesn't eat, but wakes up early to run up and down the stairs, gives me a stabbing feeling in my heart.

"Emma, what the hell are you doing?" I move to block her path so she has to stop running. "It is five in the morning, we don't wake up until eight."

Leaning against the wall she takes a few moments to catch her breath. Sweat is dripping off her frail body. She is wearing tight exercise pants and just a sports bra, so I can see every bone that makes her small frame. I don't think I had ever seen her with so little clothes on in the light. She looks sick. "I could be asking you the same thing."

"You don't look so good, Emma." Her eyes look as if they are fading. "Are you okay?"

She nods. "Yeah." She needs to take another second to steady herself. "You don't need to worry and I don't need to justify myself to you."

Emma pushes past me and starts running up the stairs again. I turn to call her name, but as I turn around I see her fall backwards. I do my best to catch her, but because of my missing leg I fall myself. Even though there is not much weight to her we fall pretty hard. She lands on top of me, seemingly unharmed. But I feel an immense pain in my real leg. I look down to see a puddle of blood beginning to form. Due to the force of our fall, and landing directly on my prosthetic leg, a large chunk of meatal snapped off. My good leg, my real leg, my perfect leg, has a huge piece of meatal sticking out of it.

"Oh crap." I mumble, the pain starts to radiate from the open wound. My wrist starts to throb, I landed on that too. But I am not the main concern here. "Emma, are you okay?" I look down at her, but her eyes have rolled back and her breathing seems labored. She is pale and cold. "Oh shit. Emma?" I try to move but my body won't let me. There is pain all over, and blood keeps pouring from my leg. "Emma?"

She is unconscious. And I am immobile. Even if I wanted to move I couldn't, not without crutches or a wheelchair. Especially with my wrist snapped, I couldn't even crawl. I try to choke back tears of fear and pain but they are falling anyway. "Help!" I yell but all I hear in response is an echo. "Help me! Please! Someone help!"

I feel myself start to grow numb. I look down at my leg again. The once tan fabric is now almost black with blood. My stomach starts to churn as I picture dying here from blood loss. I picture Emma dyeing here in my arms. Tears flood down my face. Panic is setting in. I look down at Emma's face, she is in another world, her breathing almost completely stopped. She is the last thing I see before I too fall into my own world.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

**Emma**

I can hear a faint beeping. My body feels numb. My eyes are closed, they don't feel like opening. My head hurts. I can feel the weight of my body. That beeping is in sync with my heartbeat. I give in and let my eyes slip open. I'm not in my bed. I'm not in my hospital bed. I'm in the emergency unit.

When I try to sit up there is a tangled mess of wires and tubes. I can't move. "Emma?" I look around the small white room. Nurse Jackson is walking over to my bed. "Good morning, sweetie." She is checking something on one of the tubes, hooked into my arm. "How ya feelin'?"

Like a truck hit me? Like crap? Like an idiot? Like a failure. "What's going on?" I try to recall what happened but there is a lag in my memory. "What happened?"

Nurse Jackson hands me a glass of water and sits on the side of my bed. While I struggle to get water down Nurse Jackson begins to explain. "Britney found you and Leo passed out in the stairwell. He was screaming for help, but you were both out by the time she got there. We were able to get some information from him when he woke up, but not much. He said he found you running up the stairs. You passed out, because you had nothing in your stomach and you were running on empty. He caught you, but cut his leg up pretty badly when he fell." She takes the empty glass when I finish drinking. "You're lucky Leo found you."

I sigh and look down at my arms, so many different tubes are hanging out. Everything comes back to me slowly. Leo was trying to stop me from running. I pushed past him, I didn't care. "Is he okay?"

"Leo?" Nurse Jackson gets off the bed and starts filling out my chart. "Yeah. He was only out for a day. We needed to give him a blood transfusion and stiches, but he will recover. He just needs to stay in bed or in his wheelchair for a few more days. His prosthetic was replaced, and he will be back up in no time." She glances up at me, her tone changes from neutral to stern. "It's _you_ we are worried about."

"I'm fine." I grumble. "I'm really sorry I caused all this trouble. I guess I just wasn't thinking. I need to get myself back on track."

Nurse Jackson gives a small smile. "You got that right, baby." She comes back over and places a hand on my shoulder. "We took you off the feeding tube this morning. We pumped the proper nutrients back into your body, and fluids as well." She squeezes my shoulder gently, she knows the idea of being force fed through a tube is sickening to an anorexic. "So it is like you are starting fresh. We will bring you dinner later, and as long as you eat it everything will start to work out."

She leaves me with that. She leaves the door open behind her, I listen to her footsteps until I can't hear them anymore. I am alone with my thoughts. I am alone to drown in my self-hatred.

It is the stupid pizzas fault. If I didn't eat that damn pizza I would have been fine, I wouldn't have pushed myself again. And poor Leo. This is why he left me, because I am a stupid girl who lets her sickness take control. And he still gets hurt by me, only physically this time. I am so selfish. I am so stupid. I need to remove myself, I need to take back control of my life. Or else I am going to die.

**Leo**

I am stuck in bed. I have been lying in bed for two days now, unable to move. My meals are brought to me and I am constantly being visited by nurses. Apparently I lost a lot of blood, and I need to rest before I can try to go back to my daily routine. Apparently I need to have the bandage on my leg changed every few hours so it doesn't get infected. Apparently I am in bad shape.

There is a knock at my door. I don't bother to grant entrance, because I know it is a nurse who is coming to change my bandage and take my temperature. It has been the standard five hours. Nurse Jackson walks in with a garbage bag and a new bandage. She is smiling at me. "I don't think you have ever stayed out of trouble this long, child." She sits on the bed and pats my head. "What's goin on in that little bald head of yours? No schemes?"

I chuckle softly. "No, not yet. But once I have something it'll be good. I promise." I take the blanket off my body and slowly remove my baggy sweatpants. My leg looks okay, despite the bruises and giant gauze pad. I stop smiling and sigh. "I want to get out of this bed."

Nurse Jackson nods a few times and starts removing the bandage. There is still some blood coming out of the wound, but hardly any is on the white gauze. Everything is slowly fixing itself. I try not to look at the mess of stiches, so I don't make myself sick. "Well, how about we take a little trip when I finish up your bandage."

I raise my eyebrows in surprise. "What, really?" I sit up a little taller in my bed and hold my breath when she starts to disinfect my wound. It stings like hell. "Where?"

She doesn't say anything while she bandages up my leg, she is taking her time to make sure she does it right. When she is finished she places a thermometer in my mouth. "Emma woke up today. I was thinking you and her could eat dinner together." She smiles widely at me, and takes the thermometer out of my mouth. "What do you think?"

I am nervous as Nurse Jackson wheels me down to the emergency unit. Emma has been asleep for three days and I haven't gotten a chance to see her. I don't know if she is going to be mad at me, or grateful. Or if she will be too sick to say anything. I have no idea what to expect.

When we get to her door Nurse Jackson knocks twice before she pulls the thin sheet aside and wheels me in. Emma is sitting up in bed, her hair tied back into a pony tail. There is color in her cheeks, she looks healthier than I expected. I guess feeding tubes really do work. She still looks thin and fragile, especially in her hospital bed with tubes sticking out of her arms.

"Leo?" She is surprised to see me. "What are you doing here?" I cannot tell if she is happy or disappointed. Either way I know I am happy that she is okay.

"I thought you two would like a little while to talk." Nurse Jackson explains for me. "Over dinner." She pushes me next to Emma's bed and steps out of the room. We don't say anything, just look at each other. Nurse Jackson comes back in with a tray, two sandwiches, two waters, and two puddings. "I'll be back in an hour." She winks before stepping out of the room.

I wait until Nurse Jacksons footsteps are far away before I open my mouth. "I'm sorry." Emma and I both say it at the same time. I look up at her and she is staring at her lap.

"Why are you sorry?" I ask her. "You didn't do anything."

She sighs and looks over at me. "I am sorry that I am sick." She mumbles. "I am sorry that I let it get the best of me. I am sorry that I caused you to hurt yourself. I am sorry that you have had to deal with me for so long, especially because we aren't together anymore. I'm sorry I just can't get a grip." Her eyes start to water. "I'm sorry, Leo."

I don't know what to do, so I reach out to grab her hand. Her fingers are cold and dainty, they hold no weight. "Emma, stop that." Her tears fall freely from her eyes, and I start to tear up as well. "We can't help that we are sick."

"No, Leo." Her head snaps up and she is looking at me sternly. "_You _can't help it. Because you have cancer." She takes her hand away from mine and motions to herself. "But me? I just can't eat. That isn't anyone's fault but my own."

I reach out for her hand again, she lets me grab it. "Emma, listen to me okay?" She nods once, but her muscles are still tight. "You know that isn't true. Nothing you are saying is true. And you will fight this sickness, it just takes time." She starts to relax, her eyes close. "I am glad I was there when you fell, even if I got hurt too. Because it would have hurt me much more if you were gone. And just because we are no longer 'together' does not mean I don't still care for you."

She opens her eyes and look at me through her tears. "I care about you, too, Leo."

I take a deep breath and squeeze her hand tightly. Now is my chance to tell her I regret leaving her. Now is my chance to redeem myself. To get the girl. To get Emma back. "I regret leaving you, Emma. It was stupid of me. I was just afraid I was going to hurt you. I was afraid that you wouldn't love me with one leg. I was afraid that things would get to complicated."

"You regret it?" She sits up tall in her bed and attempts to squeeze my hand back. "Leo, we both know why you left. And it has to do with a lot more than that." I furrow my eyebrows and look at her. What? "You don't want to be with me because I can't control myself. I can't do anything right. I am not a perfect, pretty, blonde super awesome girl. If it weren't for our sicknesses we wouldn't know each other. You weren't afraid of hurting me or getting hurt." She pulls her hand away again and looks down at her lap. "You were afraid that you'd be stuck with me."

I want to get out of my chair, crawl into her bed, and kiss her. To prove her wrong. To feel her skin. To make her smile. "Emma that isn't true. Things just got complicated in my head. That's all." I shake my head and place my empty hand on her leg. I want to tell her I love her. But now is not the time. "Let's just let it go, okay? Start over."

She lifts her head and looks into my eyes. "As friends?"

Those words sting. I want to be so much more then friends. Lovers, partners, _together._ I make a smile come out and take my hand off her leg. "As friends."

**A/N: **Sooo, hey guys. I cannot help but notice the amazingly high amount of views, yet depressingly low amount of reviews. I mean one, really? Show me some love you guys...

Also, I am trying to stick to the show a little, but I cannot help but spice it up a a little. Lemme know what you think!


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